Chesapeake’s loss is even more staggering when compared to the company’s net income of $374 million one year ago. The company plans to slash drilling and completions over the rest of the year. They expects to complete fewer than 50 wells in the fourth quarter of 2015 and will drop their rig count from 40 down to about 15.

Optimism

In spite of huge losses, CEO Yet Doug Lawler remained upbeat during the earning call last Wednesday and stayed focused Chesapeake’s innovation.

Lawler commented, “We are making it public about some of this technology and improvements that we see in our assets adding 600 to 700 locations in the Eagle Ford, adding locations in other areas because of our capital efficiency, seeing the improvements in the Powder River. These are dynamite things, guys. Dynamite things.”

Eagle Ford Update

For the first quarter of 2015, Eagle Ford net production averaged approximately 113 thousand barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) per day, an increase of 7%. Other highlights include:

Well cost-reductions: the company anticipates completed well costs of $5.5 million by year-end 2015

Successfully drilled five wells with laterals in excess of 10,000 feet

Successfully completed down spacing tests in various sections of its acreage, adding 600 – 700 incremental locations to its undrilled inventory

Plans to test its first Upper Eagle Ford well in the 2015 fourth quarter

The drilling team broke several records including drilling their deepest well with a total measured depth of just under 21,000 feet, fastest spud-to-rig-release time of 7.8 days, and lowest drilling cost well at $1.1 million

Mikell J. Pigott,Executive Vice President-Operations shared about the company’s Eagle Ford operations, “Due to market conditions, we continue to ramp down activity in the area. We reduced our rig count from 20 rigs in January to a current count of seven with the expectation to get to just three rigs by July. Strategically, we are going to take advantage of this ramp down in activity to further enhance our development planning.”

Chesapeake made other Eagle Ford news this year when Dimmett County property owner James Birkner filed a lawsuit against the company claiming that a Chesapeake employee hunted, killed and removed the white-tailed deer that roamed his property. Read more: Chesapeake Lawsuit Adds to Legal Trouble